{"id":133725,"date":"2026-01-14T21:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/133725\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T21:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:32:07","slug":"discussion-extended-again-for-proposed-447-unit-housing-project-at-anaheim-hills-festival-center-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/133725\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussion extended again for proposed 447-unit housing project at Anaheim Hills Festival center \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

After much discussion and pushback from concerned residents, the Anaheim City Council delayed making a decision on the housing development proposed at the Anaheim Hills Festival shopping center<\/a> to Feb. 3.<\/p>\n

Developers want to turn the Anaheim Hills shopping center\u2019s shuttered Regal Cinema into a four-story residential building, wrapped around a five-level parking structure. The public hearing held on Tuesday had been rescheduled from early December<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That project would include 447 apartment units, an additional 954 parking spaces, a clubhouse, swimming pools, a fitness center, and potentially, an enclosed dog park at the shopping center\u2019s southern end.<\/p>\n

The council is considering a general plan amendment, amending the site plan for the shopping center area, a final site plan and a development agreement for the project.<\/p>\n

Dozens of residents who\u2019ve sent letters to the council and attended Tuesday\u2019s meeting expressed overwhelming concern for fire safety and the slowing of evacuations with the addition of more homes.<\/p>\n

The proposed housing would be built less than a quarter mile east of the Deer Canyon Preserve, an area that saw two major fires in 2017, concerned residents pointed out.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s \u201cKnow Your Way\u201d<\/a> evacuation and emergency preparedness plan that was developed after the Canyon fires was mentioned several times by developers as a fire safety measure.<\/p>\n

The developers have also offered $100,000 in a community benefit contribution to the Anaheim Fire and Rescue to fund wildfire prevention efforts.<\/p>\n

But residents expressed ongoing concerns and the council unanimously decided to put a hold on a conclusive vote.<\/p>\n

Mayor Ashely Aitken said she was \u201cextremely concerned about adding housing to this part of District 6.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would appreciate just being a bit more educated,\u201d she said, \u201con what are our other options that District 6 can put forward that are not in that high fire zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council in 2024 rejected a 498-unit apartment complex nearby in Deer Canyo<\/a>n over similar concerns related to evacuations and the area\u2019s proneness to blazes.<\/p>\n

Before the council revisits the proposed housing development in February, city staff will reevaluate the Anaheim Hills shopping center\u2019s development agreement to \u201cdetermine if there are additional opportunities to maximize community benefits,\u201d city spokesperson Esther Kwon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at the additional items the public and council expressed concern and interest in, including labor and evacuation, among other things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After much discussion and pushback from concerned residents, the Anaheim City Council delayed making a decision on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,30750,164,7,1011,1071,23,611,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-133725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-hills","11":"tag-anaheim-news","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-housing","14":"tag-local-government","15":"tag-local-news","16":"tag-orange-county","17":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}